Textile Structure
how cloth is put together
Concept

Weft knitting — where it appears

Making a fabric by drawing loops course by course from one thread running across the fabric. It is what makes a knit ravel and run, and it is the opposite arrangement from warp knitting, where a thread comes down each wale.

Named by 2 essays across one field — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.

The knitted loop. One thread, bent into a course of loops, each of them drawn through the loop below. Nothing here is straight, which is why a knit extends in every direction while a woven cloth extends only on the bias.

The loop

A knit is one thread bent into loops, each drawn through the loop below. Nothing in it is straight, which is why it stretches in every direction while a woven cloth stretches only at an angle.

knits · Knit half-cardigan as an array. One cell per needle per course, over 2 repeats each way. K knits a new loop and casts the old one off, T tucks the yarn into the loop below without casting off, M misses the needle and floats past it. The margins carry the two conditions: a wale with no K in it never casts off, and a course with no K in it is never caught by anything. Both hold here.

Knit, tuck and miss

A weave is a matrix over two symbols and a weft knit is a matrix over three. The site's central question survives the translation intact: a weave falls apart when its above-and-below relation is disconnected, and a knit falls apart when a needle never knits.

knits · Stitch notation

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

CourseWaleCensusHeld loopIntegrityKnitLadderingLoopLoop lengthMissStitch notationTuck

All concepts